I first encountered his work when I bought a copy of Fred the Clown, and there was an energy and style that reminded me of the Beano and Dandy cartoons I loved growing up (my mom would buy them from a bookstore in Seremban and me and my sis would copy pictures off 'em, Dennis the Menace, Billy Whizz, Roger the Dodger, the Bash Streets Boys and on and on)

(Beano Fanart by Cheryl Liew)

(Beano fanart by me)

For some reason Marvel comics put us together for a Spiderman short called "Nightmare Commute" in 2010, and it was one of those odd moments when you find yourself in contact with someone's work you'd read and assumed would always be at that author-reader distance. (Another was working with Marc Hempel on My Faith in Frankie, having read Gregory)

After that, I'd ask Roger to do pinups to help promote Malinky Robot and The Shadow Hero as well, and he's always game despite his busy schedule.

And I got the chance to sort of return the favour with an alternative cover for his series Abigail and the Snowman a couple of years back.

I guess the point of all this is maybe partly about the way the internet has allowed us to connect and work together in ways that would have been a lot more difficult when we were still using faxes and snail mail.

But more than that - Roger's generosity (and those of many others, from David Mazzuchelli to Robb Mommaerts, Gene Yang to Aaron McConnell) reminds me of the need to be less solipsistic myself, less caught up in work and deadlines.

*edit: As it turns out this is a Lie, as Roger remembers : "...it was at the San Diego Comic Con... at a bar across the road from the convention centre, at some Disney-related thing. Charly LaGreca (of the Indie Spinner Rack podcast) introduced us, but it must have been after we’d already done the Spider-Man story, because I recall telling Charly we already “knew” one another through collaborating on that."